NAIROBI, Kenya (RNS) — The move, allegedly for building safety, hygiene and noise violations, is prompting allegations that the government of President Paul Kagame is trampling on religious freedom in the tiny East African nation.

(RNS) — The women appear to be following the lead of a 31-year-old protester identified as Vida Movahed, who took off her headscarf on the same street in late December. She was detained for a few weeks and then released.

WASHINGTON (AP) — With two Republican senators absent, Vice President Mike Pence traveled to Capitol Hill to cast the tie-breaking vote to confirm Brownback, a favorite of Christian conservatives for his views on same-sex marriage and abortion.

(AP) — The Supreme Court is refusing to intervene in a legal fight over a Mississippi law that lets government workers and private businesspeople cite their own religious beliefs to deny services to LGBT people.

(RNS) — Without the Maccabees’ victory and the preservation of Jewish religious life in ancient Israel, Christianity may not have emerged 200 years later with its taproots deeply embedded within Judaism.